98567 - Organization and Leadership

Learning outcomes

The goal of this course is to learn the basics of organisations' design and leadership and how to build, manage and motivate work teams, both in person and online. During the course students make use of conceptual and computational models to manage and understand distributed intelligence, as well as information, communication and identity, the ecologies of organisations and their leadership dynamics.

Course contents

This course introduces students to the fundamental principles of organizational theory and leadership, focusing on how organizations are designed, structured, and managed to achieve effectiveness in dynamic environments. The program examines organizational strategy and goal setting, core structural forms (functional, divisional, matrix, network and team‐based designs), and the influence of external environments and interorganizational relationships. It addresses global and cross‐cultural organizational design and the challenges of operating in international contexts. Key topics include corporate sustainability, ethics, and stakeholder management. The course explores internal design elements such as manufacturing and service technologies, digital organizations, platform models, and big data analytics. Organizational growth, life cycles, bureaucracy, and decline are analyzed. Attention is given to organizational culture, control systems, and performance measurement. Students study innovation and organizational change processes, leadership roles in managing transformation, and resistance to change. Decision-making models, cognitive biases, power dynamics, and conflict management complete the program. The course integrates theory with real case studies and practical applications to develop analytical and leadership skills.

Readings/Bibliography

Richard L. Daft, Organization Theory & Design, 13th Edition, Cengage Learning, 2021 (or later editions).

Teaching methods

The course combines traditional lectures with group-based activities.
Each class includes moments of frontal teaching together with short group exercises aimed at applying the concepts discussed and encouraging active participation.

Assessment methods

The exam will be a written test consisting of open-ended questions.

• 18-19: knowledge of a very limited number of topics covered in the course and analytical skills that emerge only with the help of the teacher, expressed in an overall correct language;
• 20-24: knowledge of a limited number of topics covered in the course and ability to autonomous analysis only on purely executive matters, expression in correct language;
• 25-29: good knowledge of a large number of topics covered in the course, ability to make independent choices of critical analysis, mastery of specific terminology;
• 30-30 cum laude: excellent knowledge of the topics covered in the course, ability to make autonomous choices of critical analysis and connection, full mastery of specific terminology and ability to argue and self-reflection.

Office hours

See the website of Massimo Ferdinandi

See the website of Jacopo Gasperi